Pregnant women in Canberra are being offered a free whooping cough vaccination to help stamp out the potentially deadly respiratory illness.
However a shortage of vaccination supplies has delayed the start of the program until the end of the month.
The ACT Government agreed to fund a free antenatal pertussis vaccination for women in the final three months of their pregnancy.
“This is a very practical step that we can take to protect women and their unborn children and pass the immunisation through to their children,” ACT Health Minister Simon Corbell said.
“Currently children can not be fully immunised against whooping cough under the age of six months.
“There’s limited protection for newborns and so vaccinating mothers in their third trimester will help provide protection to those infants.”
The repetitive coughing caused by whooping cough can be deadly, especially for tiny babies.
Shortage of whooping cough vaccines causes delay
ACT chief health officer Paul Kelly said the lack of suitable vaccines had delayed the rollout of the program.
“There is a shortage of the triple vaccine [including pertussis] worldwide and that has been there for a while,” he said.
“So we have ordered supplies and have been assured they will be here in coming weeks.
“We need to make sure we have enough vaccine in place before we start at multiple places, through general practices, Canberra and Calvary Hospitals and probably Calvary John James Hospital as well.”
A rise in whooping cough cases has already been recorded in New South Wales and Queensland so far this year.
Local health authorities fear the highly contagious nature of the disease could see it spread swiftly to the ACT.